Bahrain dissidents win retrial

Bahrain's Sunni authorities were accused of playing for time after 21 prominent dissidents won the right for a civilian retrial on Monday but were told they must remain in jail until new verdicts are reached.

Graffiti showing jailed hunger striker Abdulhadi al-Khawaja on a wall in Barbar, Bahrain, west of the capital of ManamaPhoto: AP Photo/Hasan Jamali

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a human-rights activist who is close to death after being on hunger strike for more than two months, had his appeal upheld by the Court of Cassation, Bahrain's highest judicial authority.

Delivering their ruling, the judges ruled that Mr Khawaja and 20 others convicted by a military court for their involvement in last year's pro-democracy uprising had won the right to a retrial before a civilian court.

The convictions, which followed trials condemned by observers as fundamentally unfair, earned Bahrain international criticism. Khawaja's hunger strike in particular tarnished the kingdom's reputation in the build-up to the Formula One Grand Prix held on the island earlier this month.

Accused of plotting against the state, Mr Khawaja and 13 others were jailed for life and allegedly tortured while in prison. Seven others were convicted in absentia. Critics say no evidence was ever presented to suggest that the men has either advocated or used violence during last year's bloodily suppressed protests, during which more than 50 people died.

International human rights groups had called for the defendants to be released unconditionally and Bahraini campaigners condemned the court for keeping them in custody.

Related Articles

"I think it is ridiculous, what sort of legal process is this?" Mr Khawaja's wife Khadija al-Moussawi told the BBC. "They are playing for time, and should have transferred his case to a civilian court at the first hearing not the third."

Defence lawyers said that Khawaja would remain on hunger strike despite the ruling. He has lost 25 per cent of his body weight since first refusing food on February 8, although his family said that prison authorities had begun force feeding him last week.

Bahrain's authorities were able to ease international pressure last November after it accepted the findings of an independent commission that documented serious abuses by the security forces, including extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary arrest.

Although the Al Khalifa royal family implemented some of the commission's recommendations it refused to overturn the verdicts against Mr Khawaja and scores of others jailed for participating in the protests.

In its ruling, the Court of Cassation said it did not have the power to order the release of the defendants, saying such a decision could only be made following a new trial.